Pneumatic valve insides construction



Dec. 27, 1938. Y L. c. BROECKER PNEUMATIC VALVE INSIDES CONSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 25, 193.4

a INV TOR Patented Dec. 27, 1938 UNITED STATES PTENT OFFIQE Application August 25, 1934, Serial No. 741,412

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in pneumatic valve insides construction.

Among the objects of my invention is to provide novel valve insides construction comprising interfitting and cooperating parts which may be easily made and quickly assembled as a unit for insertion into valve stems.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and such other objects as may hereinafter appear, this invention consists in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and then sought to be defined in the appended claim, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof and which shows, merely for the purpose of illustrative disclosure, a preferred embodiment of my invention, it being expressly understood, how ever, that various changes may be made in practice within the scope of the claim without digressing from my inventive idea.

In the drawing- Fig. 1 is a fragmentary longitudinal section partly in elevation through a valve stem equipped with a valve insides embodying my invention, the screw plug being shown after dropping it into the mouth of the valve stem and before starting to screw it into place;

Fig. 2 is a similar view after the plug has been screwed home to bring the barrel of the valve insides to its seat in the valve stem;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the upper end of the valve stem in Fig. 2 and of the plug and related parts; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the improved screw plug detached.

Referring now to the drawing, the numeral 1 designates the valve stem which has the reduced externally threaded outer end 2 to receive a sealing or other cap, not shown. This valve stem is provided with the longitudinal bore or passage 3 which extends entirely therethrough so as to communicate with the interior of the tire tube or other pneumatic article. The interior of the body of the valve stem is provided with the bevelled or tapered seat 4 to seat the barrel of the valve insides to be presently described. The mouth of the valve stem has the internal screwthread 5 which provides means for receiving and retaining the valve inside construction as a whole. This will now be described.

The valve insides is a self-contained unit made up of the barrel 6, the screw plug 1, the center pin 8 with its appurtenant valve designated generally by 9, and the helical spring Ill.

The barrel being tubular is adapted to be drawn from thin sheet metal and has the outwardly flanged lip l l at its upper end. A gasket 52 of flexible rubber or other suitable packing material surrounds the upper portion 6 of the barrel between the lip H and the annular shoulder E3 on the barrel. This upper portion 6' of the barrel is preferably flared upwardly, as shown so that the gasket fits the tapered seat i. The lower end of the barrel is contracted to form the internal shoulder Hi serving as the lower abutment for the helical spring 58. Below this the lip Id of the tubular lower end of the barrel forms an annular Valve seat for the previously referred-to valve 9.

The screw plug '5 has what may be described as a narrow segmental body portion with an axial hole 55 therethrough for slidably receiving the center pin 8 of the valve insides and further has integral depending legs it under its ends, the feet of said legs serving to engage the lip ll of the barrel in forcing the barrel to its seat 4 in the valve stem, see Fig. 2. These legs l6 form the sides of an arch of which the body of the plug forms the top. The narrow ends of the screw plug are formed withexternal screw threads indicated generally by i! to engage the internal screw thread 5 in the mouth of the valve stem.

The center pin 8 is preferably a round cross sectioned metal rod passed through the axial hole in the screw plug 7 and axially through the barrel 6. The lower end of the pin carries the valve 9 previously referred to as cooperating with the seat on the lower end of the barrel. This valve 9 in the particular form shown comprises a thin walled cup member 9a filled with a flexible rubber or like packing material 9b, the Whole secured between the shoulder l8 and the headed-over end IQ of the center pin. The helical spring 10 surrounds the center pin and is compressed between the previously described shoulder I 4 within the barrel and an abutment means 20 on the pin at its middle portion whereby the valve 9 is normally spring-held against its seat, as shown in Fig. 1. The upper end of the center pin extends through and well above the screw plug where it is' provided with the head 2! larger in diameter than the hole through the plug, thereby completing the holding together of all of the parts of the barrel in a self-contained unit.

Referring now to the screw plug 1, the pertions of its previously referred to screw-threads I! at the upper part of the plug designated a are full-diametered, whereas those below designated b taper-off on a cone inwardly and downwardly towards the free ends of the legs. In the illustrative plug, vestiges of these appear on the legs of the plug but these may be obliterated altogether or may be omitted especially from the lower portion of said legs.

The effect of coning off the arch-shaped screw plug as to its lower but not as to its upper screwthreaded part is that said conical lower part is directly insertable or may be directly dropped into the internally screw-threaded mouth of the valve stem until it rests centered in said mouth with the threads above it centered thereby ready to engage the internal screw-thread in said mouth of the valve stem without crossing the threads during subsequent rotation of the plug.

Fig. 1 shows the valve insides unit dropped or inserted as aforesaid into the mouth of the valve stem with the conical part of the screw plug automatically centering itself axially within said mouth and. also centering the succeeding screw threads ready to engage with the screwthread in the mouth of the valve stem without becoming crossed during the subsequent rotation of the plug. Fig. 2 shows the plug after it has been screwed home and has forced the valve insides to its seat in the valve stem. It will be noted in Fig. 1 that the reduced lower portion of the plug extends high up on the plug so that the projecting non-reduced upper portion of the plug amounts only to about one-half of the total heighth of the plug or less, whereby topheaviness of the plug, when loosely inserted in the valve stem, is avoided, which is important, because top-heaviness tends to tilt the narrow plug to lean over to one side with resultant crossing of the threads when the plug is screwed into place.

In the absence of this construction for the quick assembly and avoidance of crossing the threads in assembling the screw plugs in their valve stems, the ordinary screw plug often fails to center itself. In other words, it often becomes axially tilted in placing or dropping it into the mouth of the valve stem so that the threads become crossed on attempting to screw the plug home. This causes rejects and inefiiciency in assembling the valve insides in their valve stems in accordance with high speed production methods.

In high speed production with this type of screw plug, it is only necessary to drop the unit constituting the valve insides into the valve stem with the tapered lower part of the screw plug foremost into the mouth of the valve stem, and then to present the contained screw plug endwise to a motor driven rotary tool having a slotted end adapted to couple screw-driver fashion with the screw plug and thereby in an instant screw the plug home and force the rubber gasketecl barrel member 6 to its seat 4 without crossing the threads of the plug and valve stem.

The feature which permits quick inflation of the tire or other article by the improved con struction resides in the provision of grooves or channels 22 formed in the sides of the plug 1. These channels are seen in Figs. 3 and 4, but not in Figs. 1 and 2, because the latter show the plug in longitudinal section, the section being taken at the axis of the plug. These channels 22 are at the hub portion of, the plug, namely at the portion which immediately surrounds the center pin guide hole and extend parallel to or in the same general direction as said hub portion from the top to the bottom of the plug. They are made as deep as practicable without unduly weakening the body of the plug and lead unobstructedly toward the mouth of the barrel 8, as best shown in the plan View Fig. 3 and add materially to the air-way along the sides of the plug into said barrel of the valve insides, thereby making the construction considerably more eilicient for the quick inflation of tires, an important item in present day automobile assembly practice.

What I claim is:

A valve insides comprising a one-piece casing having a relatively large longitudinal spring receiving chamber therein, a valve stem extending through the chamber, the material of the casing at the bottom thereof being turned in from its initial position to reduce the diameter of the opening at the base of said chamber, said inturned portion providing at one side a seat for one end of the spring and at its other side a valve seat, a spring in said chamber engaging at one end the spring seat aforesaid and engaging the valve stem at its other end for stressing the stem longitudinally of. the casing, and a valve carried by the stem below the casing in position for being seated against the turned in portion of the casing 

